Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Temples (PFRPG)

3.50/5 (based on 2 ratings)
Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Temples (PFRPG)
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Houses of the Holy

Nearly every settlement in the Inner Sea has at least one temple, ranging from the modest shrines of remote hamlets to massive cathedrals in metropolises. Temples can act as centers of commerce, community, healing, and sacrifice for adventurers and common folk alike.

Pathfinder Campaign Setting: Inner Sea Temples helps Game Masters and players explore six of the Inner Sea region's most iconic seats of faith. Each entry comes complete with a detailed map and gazetteer; profiles of the temple's notable members; a history of the structure and the organization of its clergy; and a wealth of magic items, occult rituals, and spells favored by the resident priests.

This book contains details on the following temples:

  • The Cathedral of Exquisite Agony, a dark temple to Zon-Kuthon in Nidal.
  • Cayden's Hall, a combination church and tavern in the heart of Absalom sacred to the Drunken Hero.
  • The First Colonial Bank of Sargava, a bank-temple of Abadar in the city of Kalabuto.
  • The High Temple of Pharasma, a prestigious temple in Osirion dedicated to the Lady of Graves.
  • The House of Dawn's Redemption, a grand cathedral to Sarenrae in Taldor.
  • Imvrildara, an ancient shrine to Calistria hidden deep within the forests of Kyonin.

Inner Sea Temples is intended for use with the Pathfinder Roleplaying Game and Pathfinder Campaign Setting, but can easily adapted to any fantasy world.

ISBN-13: 978-1-60125-893-9

Other Resources: This product is also available on the following platforms:

Hero Lab Online
Archives of Nethys

Note: This product is part of the Pathfinder Lost Omens Subscription.

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3.50/5 (based on 2 ratings)

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very good with a few sour notes

4/5

I wasn't sure exactly what I would get when I picked this up. I wanted to see how they treated the Zon-Kuthon temple in Pangolais, and the temple to Calistria with its honeycomb ossuary intrigued me. I run and play Pathfinder 2e, so I hoped that the art (maps included) and lore would significantly outweigh the less useful 1e mechanical elements mentioned in the product description.

There are more 1e mechanical elements than I would have hoped for. That said, most of them elaborate upon the strong lore elements introduced for each temple. While I can't port it over right away into a game I might run or play in, the stories and lore to which they are attached seem like they would travel well. If you are running or playing in a 1e game, these might be perfectly fun and useful as-is; I am too rusty on Pathfinder 1e's mechanics to be sure, though.

The worst art in this book is still good. The opening spreads showing off some feature of the temple are all evocative, the maps are clear and easy to read, the NPCs well-rendered characters. With some qualifications, I can say the same thing about the lore.

The temple to Zon-Kuthon was pretty cool in that Hellraiser-cum-Catholic way Nidalese Zon-Kuthon lore tends to go. It wasn't all to my taste, but it gave me a lot of ideas for that daydream Nidalese campaign I will probably never run. It definitely does nott shirk on the torture chambers, some of it consensual and some of it entirely the opposite. It has a fair bit of presumed ableism, too, which I really do think could be peeled out of Nidal's brand of evil in a way that would make everything better for it (& I'll stop myself from ranting on there; that's some other discussion). Definitely not for every reader or gaming table, but quite good.

The temple to Calistria was great. The temple and its occupants provide a number of different perspectives on what vengeance means. No spoilers, but there is enough dramatic tension built into the temple's description that I could easily see it being the focal point for a series of adventures, or even possibly a campaign. I enjoyed seeing Calistria as patron of elven vengeance against Treerazer, too.

None of the others quite captured my imagination as the temples of Zon-Kuthon and Calistria, but I mostly liked them. Cayden's temple in Absalom is presented as a warm and inclusive and rollicking place perfect for even the most eccentric mix of good player characters. It could easily be a touchstone location for PCs operating in the city, as long as all the players involved can deal with alcohol's pride of place.

Pharasma's temple was pleasantly weird, suited to her deep mysteries. The undead-hunting Night Jars (a cool organization in itself) included two named NPCs with different ideas about what moving the undead on ideally looks like, which provides immmediate grist for the storytelling mill.

The temple of Sarenrae presented her worship in a way that helped me better understand her place in the setting. I so wish they had managed to find a better term for her ecstatic dancers than "whirling dervishes." The term is simultaneously dated, gratingly colonialist, and too tightly linked to real-life regional communities to be anything but distracting and irritating to me.

Abadar's temple...meh. He doesn't have to be the god of Inner Sea colonialism, but this temple sure makes him feel like it. And there is a chunk of 1e-era bad habits that transport nasty European colonial biases into the Mwangi expanse and Golarion and, yeah, Paizo has gotten so much better about this that this chafes all the more.

All in all, very good with a few sour notes. I am glad to have it in my collection.


Good temple illustrations, items & spells, bad NPC stats, no adventure seeds

3/5

GOOD:
The interior cover has a map of Avistan and northern Garund with icons that show the six temples from the outside and place them on the map.
There is a sample cleric (level) 5 on page 2 for placement in the locations. Each of the 10-page sections has a sidebox which describes how to customize this priest to each deity.
Each temple gets an (upper half) 2-page spread of an interior view (with the rest being history and organisation description), a half-page outer view, a full-page "flip-mat"-style birdsview, four pages of room descriptions and two pages of magic items and spells.
The outer view and 2 page interior illustrations are gorgeous.
The "High Temple of Pharasma" fits on a "bigger Flip-mat", as does "Imvrildara".
Most magic items and spells are either very flavorfull, useful or both.

BAD:
Half of the full-body illustrations for NPCs are so dark, that details are hard to make out.
Four temples are too big to draw on a bigger flip-mat, one doesn´t even fit on two!

UGLY:
None but the first and last temples scream "adventure location that needs to be fully depicted" to me.
The challenge rating for the largest Zon-Kuthon temple of Nidal is way too low with a maximum of CR 10.
None of the high priests of the supposedly largest and/or most prominent temples of six gods in Golarion are awe-inspiring.
There are no adventure- or quest-ideas presented at all.

A good book if you need pre-drawn high-temple locations for low-level characters or some very thematic magic items or spells for Zon-Kuthon, Caiden Cailean, Abadar, Pharasma, Sarenrae or Calistria.
But you still have to come up with your own adventure seeds or NPC stats for characters higher than level 8.


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Community & Digital Content Director

Announced for September! Product image and description are provisional and subject to change.

Dark Archive

Great cover and great idea!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Yeah I love the cover, even if the image might change.

Also 5,000 xp for more details on Cayden's favorite hangout in Absalom! :)


Not sold this one, will have to wait and see.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Sold for me for the fact I love Cayden's Hall. :)

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.

Anything with Golarion religion is a much anticipated installment for me.

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Dragon78 wrote:
Not sold this one, will have to wait and see.

What, we won't be getting all the 'it's only 3 weeks away/wish they would update the cover/it's only two weeks now/perhaps they'll post a preview/just one week/hope it won't get delayed' posts? ;-)


Gorbacz,

I think that's Inner Sea Brothels.

Silver Crusade

7 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

You mean Dance Halls of Golarion? ;)


No I'm pretty sure it's Brothels, Gorbacz.

Silver Crusade

3 people marked this as a favorite.
Gorbacz wrote:
You mean Dance Halls of Golarion? ;)

G%!@#%n Dance Halls! *grumble* *grumble*

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Thomas Seitz wrote:
No I'm pretty sure it's Brothels, Gorbacz.

Brothels? There are no brothels, my friend. Only dance halls. You're here to dance, aren't you? AREN'T YOU?

Silver Crusade

2 people marked this as a favorite.
Gorbacz wrote:
Thomas Seitz wrote:
No I'm pretty sure it's Brothels, Gorbacz.
Brothels? There are no brothels, my friend. Only dance halls. You're here to dance, aren't you? AREN'T YOU?

To dance the horizontal? Yes.


You know, I would actually be interested in a "Inner Sea Brothels";)

Don't worry Gorbacz, I am not the only person that post stuff like that.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Dragon78 wrote:

You know, I would actually be interested in a "Inner Sea Brothels";)

Don't worry Gorbacz, I am not the only person that post stuff like that.

I'm pretty sure that's your shtick. But don't worry, I'll cover this for you.


September feels so far away... :(


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I have been asking for this one for a while....but only six temples...I want more.

I hope on of the temples cover is one of Calistria.

Besides being my favorite Golarion Goddess...those of us that have been pushing for a Brothels of Golarion can get a taste.

So we know temples Cayden Cailean, Abadar, and Zon-Kuthon are being covered...any guess or wish list for the others?

My are
1)Calistria
2)Lamashtu
3)Nethys

Though a temple of Urgathoa in Geb would be nice.


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Superscriber
John Kretzer wrote:
Though a temple of Urgathoa in Geb would be nice.

Fully support an Urgathoa temple!

Liberty's Edge

Is this going to be "dungeon" style write-ups like Tombs of Golarion, or more of a descriptive text type thing?


Does anyone know where the place-holder cover art is from?

Silver Crusade Contributor

Bellona wrote:
Does anyone know where the place-holder cover art is from?

It's from Pathfinder Adventure Path #60: From Hell's Heart, page 56. ^_^

It depicts the Blood Queen, a horror of ancient Ghol-Gan and the alien queen of the kuru.


Nifty! How alien are we talking here - Far Realm-like, off-world but still Material Plane, or just a souped-up Aberration type?

E.T.A. I just checked the Blood Queen on the wiki and found out that it's a powerful Outsider servant of some ancient/alien(/Mythos?) deity. Interesting! :)

Silver Crusade Contributor

It is horrifically vague. ^_^

I recommend checking out Isles of the Shackles for more information. Lost Kingdoms and the aforementioned AP may have Secrets to share as well...


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Gorbacz wrote:
You mean Dance Halls of Golarion? ;)

Hey, keep it old school: Feast Halls.

Silver Crusade

Kajehase wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:
You mean Dance Halls of Golarion? ;)
Hey, keep it old school: Feast Halls.

... I'm okay with dis.


Kajehase wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:
You mean Dance Halls of Golarion? ;)
Hey, keep it old school: Feast Halls.

Most likely wrong, but...

Wasn't it Fest Halls?

--C.

Dark Archive

Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber
Psiphyre wrote:
Kajehase wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:
You mean Dance Halls of Golarion? ;)
Hey, keep it old school: Feast Halls.

Most likely wrong, but...

Wasn't it Fest Halls?

--C.

Festhalls. One word. Well, at least if my old copy of Volo's Guide to Waterdeep is anything to go by.

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Kvantum wrote:
Psiphyre wrote:
Kajehase wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:
You mean Dance Halls of Golarion? ;)
Hey, keep it old school: Feast Halls.

Most likely wrong, but...

Wasn't it Fest Halls?

--C.

Festhalls. One word. Well, at least if my old copy of Volo's Guide to Waterdeep is anything to go by.

Oooo, I did not know about these.


Kvantum wrote:
Psiphyre wrote:
Kajehase wrote:
Gorbacz wrote:
You mean Dance Halls of Golarion? ;)
Hey, keep it old school: Feast Halls.

Most likely wrong, but...

Wasn't it Fest Halls?

--C.

Festhalls. One word. Well, at least if my old copy of Volo's Guide to Waterdeep is anything to go by.

Thought it was something like that.

Thanks!

--C.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

*doesn't dance* *won't leave my friends behind.*


Pathfinder Roleplaying Game Charter Superscriber

Looking forward to this!


Wonder if they are going to include the Starstone Cathedral in this?

Silver Crusade

David Neilson wrote:
Wonder if they are going to include the Starstone Cathedral in this?

Despite its name it isn't a place of worship for any god so I would assume no.


I was under the impression it actually was. Though it also weirdly does have an attached mythic dungeon.


No David. There's not religious stuff going on there. Just people seeking divinity. It's completely different.


What a great thing to release!

Sovereign Court

Thomas Seitz wrote:
No David. There's not religious stuff going on there. Just people seeking divinity. It's completely different.

Well, that seems pretty religious to me...

The pathfinderwiki does a good summary of what we know, which isn't very much.

People only enter the cathedral if they want to become gods. I don't think it would be fair to simply call it a mythic dungeon either, the whole place is above and beyond anything you might call a temple or a dungeon.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

I hope we get a temple / shrine to Arshea based in Magnimar in this manual.

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I hope we get previews soon.


1 person marked this as a favorite.

In cut-out-your-own dioramas!


1 person marked this as a favorite.

Mmmm...Magnimarian temples to Arshea in cut-out-your-own dioramas. :D

Paizo Employee Developer

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Previews for this are still a ways off. The art hasn't even been ordered for the book yet. ;-)

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.

Time for some subliminal messaging then!

[subliminal]
Calistrian play room
Calistrian play room
Calistrian play room
Calistrian play room
Calistrian play room
Calistrian play room
Calistrian play room
Calistrian play room
Calistrian play room
Calistrian play room
[/subliminal]

Silver Crusade

Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I hope we're getting some previews during PaizoCon.


3 people marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

This makes me think of:
-Dancehalls of the Inner Sea
-Casinos of the Inner Sea
-Guide to Inner Sea Cakes
-Inner Sea Taverns & Inns
-Inner Sea Cities
-Inner Sea Hideouts
-Inner Sea Outbacks
-Inner Sea Rivers & Harbours
-Inner Sea Mountains
-Inner Sea Metropolies Edition

Then, one maybe not too far away day comes:
Inner Sea Lonely Planet edition. Anything you need for the Inner Sea, everything you could think of and a lot more.

Even better, after that is done and there´s literaly nothing left unexplored in the Inner Sea, perhaps, but only perhaps, can some select few other places be explored :D

Silver Crusade

1 person marked this as a favorite.
Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber

I agree, Vudra, Casmaron and Arcadia could use some lovin'.


Well technically any place outside the Inner Sea could use some lovin'.

Dark Archive

1 person marked this as a favorite.

While i would love to see a product about another continent one day, it makes more sense to flesh out Avistan and Garund with Campaign Settings before.

An entire landmass takes much more time to create and i for one would like to get my hands on a "Brevoy", "Kyonin", "Five Kings Mountains" and even "Varisia" book more than on a Casmaron one.

Tian Xia would make more sense than something all-new too.

But i am sure we will get another continent in the next few years.

Maybe that is James Jacobs secret project? ;-)

Complete Golarion Manual in 2025!


1 person marked this as a favorite.
Marco Massoudi wrote:

While i would love to see a product about another continent one day, it makes more sense to flesh out Avistan and Garund with Campaign Settings before.

An entire landmass takes much more time to create and i for one would like to get my hands on a "Brevoy", "Kyonin", "Five Kings Mountains" and even "Varisia" book more than on a Casmaron one.

I so agree with all of this! Still so much to detail with the Inner Sea.


Pathfinder Adventure Path Subscriber
Marco Massoudi wrote:


Complete Golarion Manual in 2025!

2025 might be a realistic date, because the average "old school" grumbler person might be looking for a retirement home then and ... oh wait, then they have pension and even more time on their hands.

Make that 2050! :D

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